Client Case Study: iOS Traditional Chinese Medicine App CheckCheckCin

At the time, they helped me formulate a vague idea in my head. Oursky was able to help us translate an initial concept into a mature idea and product. — Cinci EC

As a registered Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, Cinci Leung (Cinci EC) wanted to build on her traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with modern technology. Cinci EC was expanding her business model from an appointment-only clinic to include a modern herbal medicine mocktail stand (CheckCheckCin) and envisioned an app that could bring her various services together. Cinci wanted to create an on-call personalized TCM app for patients to find out their body type, saving them time to book an appointment with her for basic queries, and frees up her time to help visitors who had more complex cases. After Cinci EC brought her concept to Oursky, Oursky worked with Cinci EC to refine her app idea and develop a user-friendly standalone digital product that could also compliment her brand’s product ecosystem.

How can an App Reach New Customers?

A sample low-fidelity wireframe.
Cinci EC already had an established Chinese medicine practice in Hong Kong when she first came up with the idea for an app. Cinci EC wanted to add value for her patients by developing an ecosystem of products that included the best-selling book series “Chinese Healing Soups 1 & 2”, a street level mocktail stand, and a mobile app. Cinci also created a database of foods and ingredients that she wanted users to be able to access in a menu to learn about whether they were suitable for a particular body type. Cinci EC wanted this app to help the general public conveniently “CheckCheckCin” (check first) whether a food was suitable for their body type or condition.

Cinci EC spoke to various vendors to get project quotes and a professional opinion on product feasibility. She was not just looking for a vendor who could promise to build an app, but a partner who could give honest feedback about whether the idea made sense, refine her concept, make feature suggestions, and develop a product that was accessible to users.

Oursky’s Solution

Oursky’s UI designs for the CheckCheckCin iOS app.
Oursky partnered with Cinci EC to develop her app idea iteratively from design through development. The project began with the design of her app to plan and design features that delivered the core value proposition to users: providing Cinci’s TCM knowledge and personally built food and ingredient database in a relevant and personalized way to each user based on a body type questionnaire (for adults and children) that she created. The design phase went through multiple iterations as Oursky worked with Cinci EC to brainstorm and refine essential features that would go into the CheckCheckCin app that ranged from an onboarding quiz to multilingual (Chinese and English) support. The UX/UI design phase included wireframes, mockups, a prototype, and a feature list that the development team could use to begin building the app.Oursky’s design process includes the user flow, wireframe, UI styling, mockup, and high-fidelity prototyping.
In order to develop the app and help Cinci EC test her idea in a cost-effective way, Oursky proposed developing focusing on iOS first, using the iterative MVP method. Developing the app on one platform allowed Oursky’s engineers to iterate quickly based on feedback without having to duplicate for another platform. CheckCheckCin was phased into 3 parts with the key features for each part mapped out before development kick-off.

Oursky’s development included a dedicated project manager, design support, dedicated engineers, and QA. Oursky’s project manager was the key contact point in confirming change requests, explaining the implications of requests, confirming the scope of work, providing time estimates for features, and providing updates on new builds.

Oursky’s first phase for the iOS app included a quiz to profile the user, the user profile, food database with search functionality based on a person’s body type, and a health diary. Phase 2 included additional features such as a menu assistant, multilanguage search support (for English and Chinese), and integrating Google Analytics. Phase 3 continued to refine the app’s UI and add features to the menu assistant, such as a profile share button, and health diary.

Each phase of the CheckCheckCin app was completed within two months, with a confirmation from the client before continuing to the next phase. The code base was handed over to the client after project completion.

Raising Brand Awareness by Delivering Value to New Users

CheckCheckCin users could see a personalized list of recommended foods.

Oursky helped Cinci EC reflect on what type of app would be valuable to her patients and other individuals who used TCM methods for health and wellness. Oursky helped her create create a roadmap during the design phase that would help engineers architect and develop a coherent product that was extensible in future phases.

Since developing the first CheckCheckCin iOS app, the CheckCheckCin brand has expanded from one store in Sheung Wan into four shops throughout Hong Kong. CheckCheckCin as an app helped Cinci EC promote her approach to TCM to a wider, digital-savvy audience of both Chinese and English-speakers. This not only helped educate the general public on how to balance their diets based on their body types, but also encouraged them to try CheckCheckCin’s branded TCM drinks, further boosting sales.

After a year of business growth, CheckCheckCin will be partnering with Oursky again to develop a cross-platform mobile app that will help the company extend its business into ecommerce and O2O shopping experiences.

Also learn how we developed Apple’s Best Music App of 2013 iteratively with our client in this post.

If you have an app idea or product you’d like a code review for, get in touch!